American Physical Society, Physical review E: Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics, 2(78)
DOI: 10.1103/physreve.78.020101
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Self-propelled particles move along circles rather than along a straight line when their driving force does not coincide with their propagation direction. Examples include confined bacteria and spermatozoa, catalytically driven nanorods, active, anisotropic colloidal particles and vibrated granulates. Using a non-Hamiltonian rate theory and computer simulations, we study the motion of a Brownian "circle swimmer" in a confining channel. A sliding mode close to the wall leads to a huge acceleration as compared to the bulk motion, which can further be enhanced by an optimal effective torque-to-force ratio.